There were Bouki and Lapin and Possum. And
Lapin was naughty. And Bouki and Lapin and the others, they were working.
It happened that they ran out of water.

So Bouki and Possum say to Lapin (that
means "rabbit"), "Let's dig a water well."

"Oh," Lapin says, "I," he says, "live on
dew."

While they were digging the well . . .
that night--when they came the next morning, the well was dry. Lapin went
in the night and stole the water.

So Bouki says to Possum, he says, "Oh, I'm
going to make a woman out of tar. And," he said, "I'm going to put her
there." He says, "I know that it's Lapin who comes to take the water-- and
he loves girls."

So he made the doll from tar and he put it
near the well. When Lapin came with his water buckets, he saw the
girl.

"Bonjour, little miss," he
says.

She said nothing.

"Bonjour, little miss."

She said nothing.

So he touched her. Well, he touched her
and he got stuck.

He says, "Little miss, let me go." She
didn't let go.

He says, "I'm going to hit you for sure."
So he gave her a hit. His hand got stuck.

He says, "Little miss, I'm going to give
you a kick." She didn't let go. He gave her a kick. He got
stuck.

When he revived, he says, "I have another
foot for sure." He gave her another kick. He was trapped, trapped by the
tar. He couldn't escape.

So when Bouki and Possum got up, they
said, "Oh, you're the rascal who came to steal our water."

"No," he says, "that was the first time
that I've come for water. I see the little miss, and she doesn't want to
let go of me."

So they seized him. And because Lapin was
naughty, he says, "Throw me in the water. Throw me in the fire. But"--he
says--"don't throw me in the briars. Because," he says, "the briars will
scratch my skin all up." He says, "You can throw me in the water or in the
fire, but," he says, "don't throw me"--because he knew that they would
throw him in the briars. That's where he wanted to go. When he was [in the
briars], "But, oh," he says, "that's where I want to be put." When they
had thrown him in the briar patch, he says, "Ehhh," he says, "I'm in my
home." He says, "That's where I wanted you to put me." He always made
fools of them.

Notes to the Teacher: AT 175, The Tarbaby and the Rabbit,
extremely popular in Louisiana: see tales #33, #190, #200, and their
corresponding notes. Already rendered famous by the nineteenth-century
version appearing in Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus (1880), the
tarbaby tale attained even greater popularity through the animated version
presented in Walt Disney's Song of the South (1946), a film that
deeply affected Mme. Matthews. The widespread motif of the briar patch
punishment (K581.2) is found at the end of this tale. In this variant, as
well as in many other Louisiana versions (Ancelet 1994, no. 2; Saucier
1962, no. 31), the trickster steals water from a well that he has not
helped dig. There is no mention of the water well in Uncle Remus, but
Klipple lists ten variants from Africa that include water of some sort
(1991, 213-33). In this variant of AT175, there are three animals: Bouki,
Lapin, and Rat de Bois (or Possum). Bouki and Rat de Bois use tar to
fashion a catin (a doll in the image of a lady) to catch Lapin.
Klipple lists ten versions in which the tar baby is made to resemble a
lady. Another interesting aspect of Mme. Matthews' version is the way in
which she tends to switch from Cajun to Creole French when Lapin begins to
speak in anger; the angry Lapin uses such Creole phrases as ma foutre,
mon gain and t'apé vini.